This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is Part 3 of the series, Quick Visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of a Convocation Series. This piece on Tom Flores was another one. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, former NBA player John Block, legendary high school coach Willie West showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966.
Today’s feature: Former NBA player John Block.
By the early 1980s, I was a student of NBA history. I vividly remember those rabid NBA playoffs from the late 1960s — the Lakers and Celtics, the Warriors and 76ers … all those Russell vs. Chamberlain matchups … Kareem taking over Russell’s duels against Chamberlain.
When John Block, UC San Diego’s coach for a time (1980-83), brought his Tritons’ squad to the Redlands Tournament one year, I knew his NBA background.
It wasn’t hard to forget a former NBA player that spent a decade going up against the world’s greatest players.
Milwaukee coach Larry Costello brought Block in for a season, hoping his 6-10 bulk could take a little pressure off Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
At Redlands, I said to him, “Give me a status report on small-college basketball for the Tritons.”
He laughed. Block was just starting a coaching career. There was a lot to learn.
“Where do I start?” he asked.
This guy had been teammates with Kareem and Oscar Robertson with the Bucks.
John Block, a 6-foot-10 forward who played with a variety of NBA teams after being drafted by the Lakers, brought his UC San Diego team in to play at the Redlands tournament in the early 1980s (photo by NBA Retired Players Association).
After his USC days, he’d been an original draft choice (third round, 27th pick), of all places, the Los Angeles Lakers. Teammates with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. He didn’t have far to travel. USC and the Lakers both played home games at the Sports Arena.
Traded to the San Diego Rockets where Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes was an NBA scoring champ.
He didn’t last long with the Bucks. He wound up with one of the NBA’s all-time worst teams in Philadelphia, where he won a spot on the NBA All-Star team.
Teammates with Nate “Tiny” Archibald at Kansas City-Omaha.
A year later, he was at New Orleans, playing alongside “Pistol” Pete Maravich.
In his final season, 1976, he was with a Chicago Bulls’ squad that included Artis Gilmore.
This 6-foot-10 guy could shoot — 11.9 points a game, plus nine rebounds and four assists over 10 pro seasons.
All of a sudden, a guy with all those credentials showed up coaching against Redlands.
Those uneventful years at UCSD — 32-46 covering 1980-83.
Redlands beat his team in its own tournament.
“Nothing to report, really,” said Block. “I’m just getting this team going. I’ll know in a year, or so.”
It was tough recruiting at an NCAA Division III campus, he told me.
Redlands’ recruits beat his recruits that night in Currier Gymnasium.
Keep your eyes on Louisiana State University. The Tigers’ win last weekend kind of underscored something taking place in Baton Rouge.
LSU, once the softball home of former Redlands East Valley softball stud Sahvanna Jaquish, is also the home of another local product.
David Aranda, whose brother, Mike, has long been a key basketball assistant coach at REV, always seemed to be injured during his playing days at Redlands. Longtime Terrier defensive coach Miguel Olmeda loved this guy during his prep days.
Technique. Attitude. Warrior mentality. All grade-A.
David Aranda is LSU’s high-achieving defensive coordinator.
David Aranda, a Redlands High School football player, once roomed with current Texas head coach Tom Herman at Cal Lutheran. These days, Aranda is defensive coordinator at Louisiana State University (photo by LSU).
When LSU fired a highly-regarded head coach Les Miles a couple years back, they kept Aranda. He’s paid dividends at whichever campus he’s been — Utah State, Hawaii, Southern Utah, Texas Tech, Wisconsin — in a typical life of a career college coach.
Aranda, meanwhile, might be among the hottest coaches in college football.
LSU’s head coach is Ed Orgeron, the same guy that slotted in as USC’s head man a few years back. In order to keep Aranda at LSU instead of going with Jimbo Fisher to Texas A&M, he got a 4-year, $10 million deal (the highest among assistant coaches) to stay in Baton Rouge.
QB Joe Burrow transferred from Ohio State. LSU also picked up a strong placekicker, Cole Tracy, from NCAA Division 2 ranks.
TIGERS GETTING A-PLUS DEFENSE
Here’s what LSU has gotten ever since Aranda came down from Wisconsin in 2016:
On Sept. 1, LSU’s defense stood off No. 8 Miami, an offensive powder keg, 33-17, holding the ‘’Canes to 342 total yards, picking off two passes, including a 45-yard interception return for a TD, four QB sacks. It was 33-3 entering the final quarter.
In five seasons of Aranda-coached defenses, including three seasons at Wisconsin, his teams have been ninth twice, second, fifth and 12th overall in the nation for total defense.
There were a handful of 2017 NFL draft picks, including two first-rounders, plucked from Aranda’s LSU defense from 2016. Linebacker Duke Riley, who was spotted in last Thursday’s NFL opener for Atlanta, was one.
It might say something that when Aranda’s Wisconsin defense was second in the country in 2015, there wasn’t a single Badger taken in the following spring’s 7-round NFL draft.
Yes, there some underclassmen in ’15, but there were no superstar leaders — just a sound defensive system under Aranda’s watch.
All it takes is one quick glance at the Southeastern Conference. You’d note that it’s split into two divisions, Eastern and Western. The West includes No. 9 LSU, not to mention Top 10 teams Alabama and Auburn.
Talk about being in the fire pit of a red-hot fireplace inferno.
By the way, Fisher’s Texas A&M plays in that same division.
Lost for the season in that Miami win was a promising pass rusher, K’Lavon Chaisson. Aranda countered with a trio of replacements in last Saturday’s win over Southwestern Louisiana.
ESPN TALK CENTERS AROUND ARANDA
During ESPN’s televised coverage, announcers gave Aranda thumbs up.
“Highest paid coordinator in college football … sharp guy … he lit the room up … he’s got the air of a guy who could run a program. … just a joy to talk to.”
After Redlands, Aranda played at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. The Kingsmen play in the same conference as the University of Redlands. In a sense, they got him from under the noses of the Bulldogs’ hierarchy. It’s more complex than that, of course, but he wore purple instead of maroon.
While at CLU, he roomed with a guy named Tom Herman. If you google Herman’s name, you might discover he’s head coach at Texas. That’s Univ. of Texas, the famed Longhorns of Earl Campbell, Darrell Royal, Vince Young, a ton of college football legends.
Wait a minute: Aranda and Herman in one dorm room?
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
It’s a growing club, one that began assembling in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. beginning in 2002.
There’s Bob Bowman, the Arizona State University coach who helped guide Michael Phelps to a myriad of Olympic gold medals, who joined that exclusive list in 2010.
Add George Haines, who notched 26 women’s national AAU championships, plus another nine men’s titles at Northern California-based Santa Clara Swim Club before becoming head swimming coach at UCLA before heading off to Stanford.
Throw in Ron Ballatore, the five-time U.S. Olympic team coach who took over at UCLA upon Haines’ departure — 10 gold medalists amid a myriad of achievements that included 26 NCAA individual champions.
All three men, among a few dozen more, are part of the American Soccer Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame.
Redlands’ Chuck Riggs’ inclusion into ASCA’s Hall of Fame this year might be considered long overdue.
Chuck Riggs of Redlands will be inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association on Sept. 6 (photo by ASCA).
Coming to Redlands as its club coach in the early 1980s, Riggs has a lifetime of swim-coaching achievements that keep adding up even at age 71.
Riggs, a diver during his competitive days in the midwest, is currently operating on the deck at Beaumont High School. That team, plus heading up the PASS Dolphins, is his latest test after spending a few years coaching at the University of Hawaii.
Beaumont was a nice landing spot — willing athletes and a nice facility.
“I’ll do it,” he said, “until I’m not having fun anymore.”
In his early coaching days, he took 11 Riverside Aquatics Association swimmers to the 1972 Olympic Trials.
Let’s see — 1972. Wasn’t that the year Robin Backhaus claimed a bronze medal at the Munich Olympics, better known as the Mark Spitz Swimming Invitational?
Riggs admits to a small role in Backhaus’ training.
Riggs met the Hall of Fame criteria long ago. Some criteria off that list:
Placing two teams in the Top 10 at the USA Swimming Nationals, or NCAA Division I (top 10), II or III (top 2).
Personal coach for two, or more years, of two individual USA summer national champions.
Personal coach for two years, or more, of two individual USA Olympic or World Championship (long course) medalists.
Personal coach for two, or more, years of two world record holders.
Around these parts, Riggs has made more than a contribution to swimming.
ASCA’s Hall of Fame missed selecting him for years.
“All it took,” he said, “was someone to nominate me.”
RIGGS, RST HAD QUITE A RUN
Riggs could be excused for wincing every so often over another top-flight swimmer — Shannon Cullen.
A likely Olympian, Cullen was a contemporary — an outright competitor — of multiple Olympic medalist Amanda Beard. On the road to an Olympic career out of Riggs’ Redlands Swim Team program, Cullen took off on a full-ride scholarship to swimming-rich USC.
That sport might’ve been awaiting a major showdown between the two medley specialists, Beard and Cullen. It couldn’t have been set up any better.
Beard went on to international acclaim. Cullen chose a different path.
“She got a boyfriend,” said Riggs, “who she later married.”
Some two decades later, Riggs was asked to reminisce about the fabulous Cullen.
“She’s still married to the same guy,” he said, “and they have three beautiful kids.”
Riggs’ RST club produced well — in the water and out.
Vicky West went to Northwestern.
Steve Messner went to Cal-Berkeley.
Alicia Wheelock? Arizona State.
Evan Castro showed up at Utah.
Temple Cowden splashed in at Fresno State.
Yale got Erin Carlstrom and Cole Heggi.
Auburn landed Heather Kemp and Karl Krug.
Speaking of Auburn, Ben Worby went to arch-rival Alabama.
Then there’s Krug.
Krug, along with another Redlands sprinter, Joey Hale, became the first prep tandem in history to record sub 20-second clockings in the 50-yard freestyle at a high school championship meet.
In 2008, Krug, Hale, Tyler Harp and Mike Perry combined for a 1:21.94 clocking in the boys 17-18 division at the U.S. National Championships.
Dozens of swimmers through the years reached U.S. Senior and Junior Nationals, plus the Olympic Trials.
SETTING UP CHAMPIONSHIP WORKOUTS
Then there’s Cynthia Woodhead, who’s known to the swimming world as “Sippy.” At one point, Woodhead held no less than 16 world records.
Woodhead would have been an Olympian in two Summer Games if not for the U.S. boycott of 1980 when she was just 16. By 1984, the Los Angeles Games, she was still in racing mode.
Cynthia “Sippy” Woodhead in a familiar pose — winning a race. The onetime 16-event world record holder initially trained under Chuck Riggs, whose coaching career was just getting underway during his days as Riverside Aquatics Association coach (photo by Sippy Woodhead).
Woodhead won Olympic silver in the 200-meter freestyle.
There were seven world records, plus 18 American records.
Multiple medals at the 1978 World Championships, three gold and a silver.
Five gold medals at the 1979 Pan American Games.
In the 1983 Pan Am Games, Woodhead picked up a gold and silver medal.
There was a total of 18 U.S. national championships, ranging from the freestyle, medleys, butterfly and multiple relays.
Not all of Woodhead’s marks were associated with Riggs. She swam in Mission Viejo — Hall of Fame coach Mark Schubert — for a couple years before landing at USC.
Riggs, however, set up her initial path.
At age 11, Riggs had Woodhead in his senior group in 1975.
The plan was simple, yet complex. It was always early-morning workouts balanced by late-day sessions.
Riggs was stoking the fires of a 12-year-old Woodhead who set a U.S. record in the 1650-yard freestyle. Woodhead was a world record holder at age 14.
Workouts included 20,000 yards daily.
There were 11 workouts each week.
Throw in weight training.
At Christmas one year, she did 30,000 yards that week — 5 ½ miles in the water!
While the athletes log the workload, it’s the coach that sets the tone, schedules, outlines the pathway and formulates a motivational approach. Non-swimmers probably have no idea what it takes to become a swim champion.
Riggs, throughout his lengthy career, took notes all along the way.
Thirty-seven years in the classroom — Riverside Rubidoux High, mostly — as an English, history and philosophy teacher, Riggs coached two Pasadena City College divers to All-American status.
On Woodhead, said Riggs: “She never argued about the workouts. I sat down with her parents one time and we hashed out a plan when she was very young. She stuck to it.”
Riggs’ Hall of Fame induction, set for Sept. 6 at the World Clinic, scheduled for Anaheim. It’s an hour’s drive from Riggs’ Redlands home.
Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
Here it is, August 16, 2018. On this date in 1976, another major golf championship was awarded. On Aug. 13, 1970, a previous major title had been awarded.
Pro golfer Dave Stockton taught me a lesson about sports I never forgot.
I’d never met the San Bernardino native. I’d interviewed him a couple times – years ago – by telephone. A onetime Pacific High School star, who won the 1959 CIF-Southern Section championship, had a stalwart golfing career.
Dave Stockton, a San Bernardino native now living in Redlands, holds the Wanamaker Trophy, symbolizing victory in one of professional golf’s grandest prizes — the PGA Championship (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
He’s won the PGA Championship twice, in 1970 and 1976. He’s a Senior U.S. Open champion. There have been other championships, including the Los Angeles Open and a few other prominent tournament titles. Around these parts, Stockton’s considered a General among those who’ve achieved at the highest levels in any sport.
The seeds of my life’s lesson were planted in August 1970. That’s when Stockton, who was in contention at the 1970 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Golf Club in Tulsa, Okla. was taking on a rather large challenge.
Arnold Palmer – not to mention Arnie’s Army – was the hurdle standing in Stockton’s pathway.
(A curious note, perhaps: About 15 miles from Redlands, the city of Beaumont includes a housing complex dubbed Tournament Hills. Street names include Trevino Trail, Woods Way, Casper Cove, Hogan Drive, Nicklaus Nook, Palmer Ave.
Other streets are named Crenshaw, Bean, Miller, Mickelson, Runyan, Irwin, Bean, Venturi, Shore (as in Dinah) and Pepper (Dottie), among others, plus parks named for Trevino, Palmer and Nicklaus.
Get it?
I happen to live on the corner at Stockton Street.)
At age 15, I’d only caught a minor glimpse on how formative Arnie’s supportive fans could be. I also had no idea how rugged they could get against a player who was challenging Palmer’s run to a memorable golf championship.
The PGA Championship is the fourth major golf tournament, following the Masters, U.S. and British Opens. I believe only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and, eventually, Tiger Woods have won the Grand Slam of Golf.
Jack Nicklaus, who is receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom (photo by Wikipedia Commons), was very close to Dave Stockton in both of his PGA Championship victories, which came in 1970 and 1976.
Nicklaus and Woods are multiple ’Slam winners.
My Dad, Neal Brown, and I watched Palmer go after that elusive fourth major in 1970, a title he’s never won despite an otherwise illustrious career. Dad was such a fan of Palmer’s that he actually fashioned his own golf swing after Arnie’s, whose swing was often a source of discussion among the sport’s purists during his days.
In August 1970, Dad and I sat and watched, rooting for Arnie. We were definitely part of Arnie’s Army, TV-style.
Stockton stood up under the heat and the pressure.
Pressures of a major golf championship are immense. It included the likely possibility that gallery members – Arnie’s Army supporters – were doing things to irritate him.
Like Dad, I was disappointed that Arnie didn’t win.
INSIGHT INTO THAT 1970 PGA TITLE
Fast forward a decade, or so.
I was now working for the Redlands daily sports section.
The Stockton family had moved back to Mentone, a neighboring community next to Redlands. I got the telephone number where Stockton was staying while he was playing at a tournament in Canada.
He was obliging, honest and frank in his answers. I could hardly wait to hit him up with my remembrance on how he knocked off Arnold Palmer at the 1970 PGA Championship.
I was certain he could fill in some of the gaps from that experience.
It was likely the highlight of his career. When the subject came up, the onetime Pacific High and University of Southern California golf star was ready.
Arnold Palmer? The missing link in his trophy case? The destiny with history? Golf’s Grand Slam?
Arnold Palmer’s chances of winning golf’s Grand Slam was cut off by Dave Stockton at the 1970 PGA Championship in Tulsa, Okla. (Photo by Wikipedia Commons).
“My family,” said a serious Stockton, without missing a beat, “needed it more.”
Palmer, who was a remarkable golfer for decades, had won four Masters titles, two British Opens and the 1960 U.S. Open. He tied for second at the PGA Championship on three occasions — including 1970.
For the record, veteran golfer Bob Murphy tied for second with Palmer at one-over par. Stockton was two-under.
Jack Nicklaus was four shots back.
Johnny Miller held the first-round lead.
Stockton shared the second-round lead with Larry Hinson.
After three rounds, Stockton held a three-shot lead over Raymond Floyd heading into the final 18 holes. Palmer trailed by five.
Stockton, who shot a final round 73, shared the experience of holing out a 125-yard wedge shot.
He’d also shared that the media referred to him as an “unknown.”
After he notched the victory, he was no longer that unknown.
“I hit a tee shot into the trees,” he recalled, “and I heard (an Arnie Army reserve) holler, ‘go get ’em, Arnie.’ That made me hot.”
Said Stockton: “I had some work to do. That (final round) wasn’t easy.”
That was the lesson, folks. Who cares if there was a blank spot in Palmer’s trophy case? Palmer needed that championship about as much as the Yankees needed another World Series trophy.
The esteemed Palmer seemed to do quite well, I noticed, never having won that fourth major. It might be a blank space on his trophy case in 1970, but no matter. His bank account probably didn’t suffer all that much in 1970.
Neither did his career.
ONE MORE WANAMAKER TROPHY ADDITION
Stockton, however, added a jewel to his trophy case, which also included the L.A. Open. At Riviera Golf Club, Stockton outdueled another golf legend, Sam Snead a few years earlier.
Since learning that lesson from Stockton, I don’t necessarily root against the Yankees. Or against Notre Dame’s football machine. Or against the Lakers or the Celtics pulling out another NBA title.
I love the Final Four when a mid-major like Gonzaga or Marquette or George Mason or Butler, challenges for that elusive prize ahead of North Carolina or UCLA or Duke or Kentucky.
What I do love are the good stories coming from unexpected winners.
That lesson came via Stockton.
“My family needed it more,” keeps shooting through my mind.
The Wanamaker Trophy, symbolizing the PGA Championship, found its way back into the Stockton family six years later.
On the 72nd hole in 1976 at Congressional Golf Club, Stockton connected on a 15-foot par putt to beat Floyd and Don January by a single shot.
The ever-dangerous Nicklaus, defending champion and looming closely to the top, was beaten by two strokes.
Let’s not overlook Stockton’s other top finishes at major championships.
He tied for second place at the 1974 Masters, trailing Gary Player by two shots alongside Tom Weiskopf.
In the 1978 U.S. Open, he tied for second place with J.C. Snead, one shot behind Andy North at, of all places, Cherry Hills (Colo.) Country Club – the site where Palmer notched his only U.S. Open victory.
Stockton’s best finish at the British Open, a tie for 11th place, came one year after winning the 1970 PGA Championship. Lee Trevino won at Royal Birkdale.
As for the San Bernardino native, Stockton moved to Mentone in the 1980s. A couple decades later, his family moved again — this time to Redlands, near the traditional country club.
President Gerald Ford is one of a handful of honorary members at Redlands Country Club (photo by Wikipedia Commons) that also includes golfer Dave Stockton.
Along with comedian Bob Hope, President Gerald Ford and Dodger owner Walter O’Malley, Stockton was presented as an honorary member at Redlands Country Club.
He told me, again by telephone, “I had no idea there were honorary members at Redlands.” Stockton seemed moved. This wasn’t an Arnie’s Army remembrance party.
A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown
She taught at Mentone Elementary School for decades, but Ruth Colley was probably never known by any of her students as an Olympian.
The year, 1952.
It was that year when Colley, qualified and trained, setting herself up for being that rare individual – a U.S. Olympian.
Rare? Ruth DeForest would’ve been the first female Olympian in her sport.
She was Redlands’ Mrs. Tennis – the first woman ever to win that distinction in a city of revered participants – in a sport she was totally devoted to during her years. Throw golf into that mix.
Colley, who married Joe Colley, was a lively gal. Athletically-minded and gifted, she has quite a resume.
One of the original organizers of the Redlands Racquet Club, a tennis-based spotlight that sailed high on the local radar for years.
It’s not the first sport that comes to mind when discussing Olympics.
That was Colley’s sport of choice when she, apparently, reached her ultimate goal – qualifying for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Ruth DeForest was a canoe-racing specialist who attended Newark State College in the 1950s.
She even had a nickname – Woody. She bowled. Played basketball. She shot as a member of the school’s rifle club.
Kayaking shouldn’t seem all that outlandish. It’s been an Olympic sport since the beginning. Older than other Olympic sports, like basketball.
Training was off campus – there were no facilities at Newark State – so she trekked up to the American Canoe Association Camp. When she entered the National Canoe Races, held in the summer of 1951 on the Charles River in Boston, DeForest took second with her team.
There were 75 entries. Four-boat races. She was the lone female.
She took first in a national Ladies Kayak Race in Washington, D.C. in 1951.
Anyone out there believe that kayaking isn’t a sport? Guess again.
It’s beyond challenging. Those things go from 1,000 to 10,000 meters. In women’s, it’s a 500-meter sprint.
The sport is as old as it is traditional – dating back to the 1870s.
You start thinking: Male dominated.
A tennis player, golfer, rifle shooter, bowler and basketball player, Ruth DeForest-Colley might’ve been an Olympic medalist in kayaking if there had been a favorable reception to women on the U.S. squad (photo by permission of the Redlands Daily Facts).
Chatting her up was a blast. I could interview Ruth Colley for a week – and still not finish the conversation. She had plenty to say, all entertaining, pertinent and valued. The Colley name, Joe and Ruth, appeared in the local paper numerous times, perhaps an Olympic record number of times. Golf, tennis and plenty of other items.
By 2007, she was perhaps finally being recognized. That December, she was named “Living Legend” by the Alliance for Aging Research in Washington, D.C. Plenty of influential people, including Colin Powell, were nominated for that award, according to a local newspaper article.
Colley was living longer and loving it. There was enthusiasm attached to her golf and tennis-playing lifestyle.
She’s an honorary lifetime member of the Washington Canoe Club. There’s a trophy that’s given each year – named the Ruth DeForest-Colley Award.
In 1988, when she could’ve been playing tennis or golf in Redlands, she won four gold and four silver medals in kayaking at the Nike World Masters Games.
But that 1952 Olympic kayak spot was questionable.
She beat all the odds – time requirements, all the rigorous training, winning the qualifying events – to make the trip across the Atlantic.
Michael Budrock (1,000 meters) got to go. So did William Schuette. And Thomas Horton. And John Eiseman, plus John Anderson and Paul Bochnewich, John Haas and Frank Krick.
Footnote: None of those guys won medals.
DeForest could’ve competed in the lone women’s event, a 500-meter sprint, won by Finland’s Sylvi Saimo. Austrian and Russian kayakers took the silver and bronze medals.
By contrast, there were eight men’s events.
Talk about needing a MeToo movement.
Gender equity? There was no such thing.
In a word, DeForest wasn’t allowed to compete. She was a woman. It was a world of, perhaps, chauvinistic men. There were rules. A chaperone was required for a single woman headed to Europe. That was, at least, the excuse given. You get the feeling that, perhaps, the U.S. men didn’t want to be upstaged by a U.S. woman.
No accommodations were made for DeForest in a male-dominated sport.
Frank Havens, the 1948 London Games silver medalist, won the gold medal in 1952. DeForest had trained with Havens, a four-time Olympian.
Frank Havens, said to be Ruth DeForest’s training ally in preparation for the Helsinki Games, won the 1952 gold medal in the 10,000-meter kayaking Olympic event (photo by canoemuseum.wordpress).
Some history: Havens’ father, Charles, missed the 1924 Paris Olympics – where he’d been favored to win a medal – to be home with his wife during Frank’s birth.
None of which should’ve meant anything to Ruth DeForest.
No Olympic trip? It was, perhaps, the disappointment of a lifetime. Train for 1956 in Melbourne?
DeForest instead graduated from Newark State in 1954. She got married, settled down with a family and taught elementary school in the Redlands school district. She didn’t stay away from athletics.
Colley taught tennis around Redlands for nearly two decades.
She goes down as the nation’s first female kayaker at a time when they had been shunned from the spotlight.
You get a strong sense that the men-at-the-club had quite a few conversations about keeping this kid from competing. They couldn’t keep her from graduating with a degree of Childhood Science.
Imagine the Redlands Connection if Ruth DeForest had won a gold medal.
A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown
For years, Redlands High’s K.K. Limbhasut worked his way into the Terriers’ golf lineup at their No. 1 position — all four seasons, in fact. When he notched a victory at that Ka’anapali Classic in Lahaina, Hawaii in November 2018, he shot his way to collegiate golf’s mecca.
He has just capped his junior season at Cal-Berkeley, shooting just over 71. Limbhasut’s collegiate career includes two prominent wins, a dozen top 10 NCAA finishes, plus a 10th place at the 2016 NCAA Championships as a freshman.
The Thai-born Limbhasut (pronounced Lip-ah-SOOD) was one of those athletes that showed up as a Terrier, who averaged 68 shots every time he played 18 holes as a prep.
K.K. Limphasaut, a Redlands High School product, is playing his way through UC Berkeley on a golf scholarship. The fifth-year senior has won some collegiate events in his time (photo by Cal Bears).
He goes into a list of Terrier athletes that might’ve been surprises in the school’s traditional Blue Line.
Athletes like future Olympic high jumper Karol Damon, plus Brigham Young University tennis’ Hermahr Kaur, soccer’s Landon Donovan, football and track star Patrick Johnson, among others, who showed up, perhaps unexpectedly, to carve out a niche.
Those athletes could’ve easily shown up on some other campus.
When Limbhasut shot a 67 at the CIF-Southern Section championship at Mission Lakes, he’d outplayed Oregon-bound Aaron Wise (now on the PGA Tour), of Corona Santiago, by a single shot to win the 2014 championship.
Names like Tiger Woods (three times, in fact, for Anaheim Western) are on that same winner’s list. So are PGA Hall of Famers like Dave Stockton (San Bernardino Pacific) and Billy Casper (Chula Vista), plus Vista Murrieta’s Ricky Fowler.
Limbhasut probably won’t ever forget that eagle on the 16th hole at Mission Lakes which lifted him to his win over Wise and an entire field of gifted prep players.
His grades, not to mention his game, got him a shot, literally, at the academically sound Berkeley campus.
He’s paid his dues at Berkeley. There was that 2014-2015 Aggie Invitational triumph in Texas, plus a tie for first place at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate Tournament in Hawaii one season later.
Limphasut has been a three-time All-West Region. Like most top-flight amateurs, he’s played in plenty of major events. He just finished playing at the Arnold Palmer Cup, held in France, losing in match play while representing the International team.
Let’s not forget that any time, he tees up in a collegiate match — particularly in the super talented Pac 12 — Limbhasut’s taking on top-flight future pros. In Cal’s NCAA Regionals, played in Raleigh, N.C., an 11th place finish failed to land a spot in the NCAA Championships.
Limbhasut’s tie for 32nd place, shooting 212, was middle of the road play.
It’s probably far too premature to pronounce a pro future on Limbhasut, which is the likely conclusion to draw from any golfer with such a growing list. It’s probably too premature to rule it out.
His final round 66 at the Royal Ka’anapali Course included three pars on the final three holes, shooting 12-under par for a 200 total, edging South Carolina’s Scott Stevens by a shot. Limbhasut’s Cal teammate Collin Morkiwaka started the final round in first place.
Limbhasut’s patience and iron play held steady.
“I controlled my ball flight this week,” he told an area magazine, “which helped when the trades (infamous Hawaiian winds) picked up.”
Noting a 25-foot uphill putt he sank for an eagle on the ninth hole, Limbhasut seemed perfectly up to that up-and-down part on the 18th hole to close it out.
Next stop: Limbhasut, a fifth-year senior, will begin play this fall.
This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is Part 3 of the series, Quick Visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of a Convocation Series. This piece on Tom Flores was another one. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, former NBA player John Block, legendary high school coach Willie West showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966.
Today’s feature: World-class distance runner Steve Scott.
Steve Scott could’ve wiped out the field at the 2001 version of A Run Through Redlands.
Think about it.
There were 136 times in his career that Scott ran the mile in four minutes, or better. He held the American record in that distance for a quarter-century. His place in track & field’s history books are cemented forever.
That he showed up to run in Redlands was incredible. He wasn’t there to compete, though.
“I’ve got friends here,” he said, standing in front of a crowd of local runners. “I ran with them in the 5K … but I didn’t enter the race. This was just a fun run for me.”
Upland’s Steve Scott, who ran a mile under four minutes a world record 136 times, stopped by to run for fun at the 2001 Run Through Redlands (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
It must’ve never occurred to runners on that Sunday morning that they were running next to a legend.
It occurred to me, however, that I had a genuine story on my hands.
I gigged the local newspaper photographer, Lee Calkins, to get Scott’s photo. Scott, charming as he was spectacular, had given me his telephone number for, perhaps, a future feature article. I could hardly wait.
INTERVIEW WITH A LEGEND
Talk centered around that remarkable record of sub-four-minute miles. He was a legitimate superstar on the track – nationally and internationally.
He was just 22 when Britain’s Sebastian Coe set the world mile record (3:48.95) in Oslo, Sweden in 1979. Running second that day was none other than Scott, the miler from Upland. Eventually, his lifetime best over one mile was 3:47.69.
It seems almost sub-human to recognize his lifetime best in the 800 was 1:45.05.
Olympics?
Like many athletes in 1980, ready to erupt at the Games, he was part of a U.S. contingent that wasn’t allowed to attend the Moscow Olympics because America boycotted.
“I won (the 1500) at the Olympic Trials,” he told me. “I was ready for the Olympics, believe me.”
Scott did win the gold medal at the Liberty Games, an event organized to allow boycotting nations to enter their athletes. Held in Philadelphia, Scott held off Sudan’s Omer Khalefa by a fraction of a second in 3:40.19 over 1500 meters.
In the 1984 L.A. Games, Scott ran 10th in the 1500; fifth at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Only one of his lifetime bests – 800, 1000, 1500, mile, 3000 or 5000 – was run on American soil. In the 5000-meter, Scott ran a 13:30.39 at legendary Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
“Running in Europe is great,” he said. “There’s nothing like it. Track is huge over there. You can really make some money.”
Appearance fees, purses, shoe sponsorships, bonuses for world records – “the big money is overseas,” said Scott. “There’s no big money in American track.”
Holder of the American one-mile record on three different occasions – becoming the first American to crack 3:50, incidentally – Scott set the American record (3:47.69) in July 1982.
When I spoke with Scott in 2001, he still held the American record in the mile (his record was broken in 2007 by Alan Webb, 3:46.91).
“I love road racing,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me whether the race is on the track, indoor, outdoor, on the roads.”
I used to cover the Sunkist Invitational in Los Angeles, a pre-season indoor meet, when Redlands would send athletes. I wasn’t around when Scott ran his first mile under four minutes in 1977.
He raced against the likes of Sydney Maree, Ovett, Coe, Steve Cram – legendary figures over the mile distance.
Then there was the Dream Mile, he called it.
“Three of us,” Scott said, referring to New Zealand’s John Walker and Ireland’s Ray Flynn, “all ran under 3:50.”
It took place in Oslo, Norway in 1982. Scott won in 3:47.69, Walker was next in 3:49.08 and Flynn was third in 3:49.77.
“Whew,” Scott recalled. “I can’t remember a bigger race with that much speed.”
Walker’s run is still a national mark in New Zealand. So is Flynn’s mark in Ireland. Twenty-five years later, Webb cracked Scott’s record.
For Scott, it all started in high school. Who could have foreseen the moment that Scott would race against Walker, who logged 135 races under four minutes?
“I ran cross country at Upland High School,” he said. “There was a coach there who kept after me to run track.”
In the 1972 Olympics, a U.S. runner, Dave Wottle, had won the gold medal in the 800. Scott watched, then developed a strong desire to run track. In college at UC Irvine, Scott was NCAA Division 1 champion in the 1500.
“My times in high school were nothing special,” he said, referring to 1:58 in the 800 and 4:30 in the 1500.
“Running those (record) times in the mile, holding the record,” he said, “was the most special part of my career. Those were great feelings.”
COULD’VE WIPED OUT REDLANDS RACE
As for that 2001 Redlands’ 5K, consider that he once ran 5,000 meters in just over 13 minutes. In 2001, I seem recall the course record at just over 15 minutes – virtually a sprint.
Scott’s background produced a mark that was two minutes quicker.
What shouldn’t go unnoticed here is that A Run Through Redlands organizers, dating back to its origins in the early 1980s, couldn’t conceive they could offer up a significant event that a world figure might show up to run — even if it was a “fun run.”
Could he have wiped out the Redlands field, I asked him?
A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown
For most of his 3 ½ years with 1981 NASCAR Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip, chief mechanic Gary Nelson had met one challenge after another.
And the 26-year-old former Redlands mechanic can look back on over 20 years of experience working with engines as his credentials for time spent with the circuit’s hottest driver.
NASCAR crew chief Gary Nelson wasn’t born in Redlands, but the eventual wrench-turning wizard spent plenty of time there as he got his racing career started (photo by Wikipidia Commons).
“I like to think I can look at a car and say ‘this area’s weak’ and then spend more time with that,” Nelson told me a couple days before the 1980 Winston Western 500 at the old Riverside International Raceway.
“This race,” he said, “is one of the toughest for mechanics because of the course.”
It’s a course that would cause any race team headaches.
Riverside’s 7-turn course each lap would depend on mechanics’ ability to maintain the clutch and brake systems.
“On a super speedway,” said Nelson, referring to the likes of Talladega or Martinsville or Bristol, “you don’t even use them. That is, until you come to a pit stop.”
Cars that pull into pit area at Riverside, well, it resembles organized mayhem. All that stopping, turning and rotating around that course.
Nelson was well-known around Redlands by all those race-lovers. I was urged by plenty, including newspaper advertising manager Jim Mundy, to produce a story for the locals as the Winston Western 500 beckoned. In fact, we rode out to Riverside Raceway together.
Nelson, born in Illinois before Arnold and Mildred Nelson moved to Redlands, started with engines when he turned five.
Arnold Nelson started teaching his son via motorbikes and race carts.
“My dad’s a real good mechanic,” said Nelson, who eventually got into racing with local legend Ivan Baldwin — “Ivan The Terrible.” When he was in his mid-teens, Nelson started sweeping the floors before working his way in as Baldwin’s lead mechanic.
Said Mildred: “He’s just like his dad. When Gary was 16, his dad gave him the family van. The first thing he did with it was take the engine out and put a bigger one in.”
She said Gary had always been interested in anything with wheels.
“I always worried about him, but I knew he was very careful. He wasn’t a wild driver.”
His early racing experience was local.
ORANGE SHOW SPEEDWAY SPECIAL
NASCAR had to be special, especially since the Ontario Motor Speedway and the Riverside raceway were so close to Redlands. To get there, however, required the paying of dues.
It was Saturday at Orange Show Speedway. Arguably, Baldwin might be the most successful driver that ever came out of OSS. Said Nelson: “We had a lot of fun.”
At left, West Coast driving megastar Ivan Baldwin, while Gary Nelson checks the engine at Speedway 605 in the San Gabriel Valley (photo by legendsofnascar.com).
A connection to Baldwin was worth plenty in those years. Baldwin, later killed in a 1996 traffic accident, raced all over California’s racing circuit. That Nelson was part of his crew shouldn’t be a surprise.
“Racing was cheap in those days,” Nelson said. “And it wasn’t hard to do. But nowadays with the price of engines and tires, it’s hard to get into.”
All of which is why events led him into NASCAR. “I wouldn’t want to race unless I could go first class,” he said.
Waltrip and Nelson hard went after wins. At a race in College Station, Texas one week, a young driver named Dale Earnhardt., Sr. had a one-lap lead with 20 remaining. Nelson saved 10 seconds by replacing just two tires instead of four on the pit stop.
It saved the day. Waltrip won, leaving the driver praising his crew chief – typical comments. “Gary made the decision to change those tires. Goddammit, the kid is so good.”
Nelson countered by saying it had been a joint decision – crew, driver and chief mechanic each involved.
“We have a good crew,” said Nelson, noting future Hall of Famers Buddy Parrott and Robert Yates, plus Butch Stevens in the pits.
“Over the last three years,” said Waltrip, who won 13 races that season with Nelson as crew chief for DiGard Racing, “we’ve been successful because the good mechanics have stayed and the bad ones have left.”
Nelson’s teams won at Daytona and Riverside, Richmond and Bristol, Darlington and Michigan, Pocono and Martinsville, Wilkesboro and Charlotte, Richmond and Dover Downs – pretty much all the major stops on NASCAR’s fabled schedule.
WALTRIP CALAMITY NEARLY OVERCOME
In the 95-lap Winston Western 500, Waltrip crashed at the sixth turn on lap 65. The car limped into the pits. In 15 seconds, the crew changed two damaged tires and hammered out the dented body so Waltrip could drive his now-disfigured car back into contention.
Two days before that race, Nelson said Bobby Allison and Richard Petty would be the “toughest competition.”
He wasn’t necessarily ignoring the likes of Cale Yarbrough, Joe Millikan, Earnhardt or Benny Parsons.
Wasn’t it ironic that Allison took the race and Petty, with substitute driver Jimmy Insolo, finishing third?
Darrell Waltrip was a stock car driving legend. Part of that success came with Redlands’ Gary Nelson running the team (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Waltrip, his crew having made the quick-handed changes after the crash, took second.
Six laps were left. Waltrip was down 45 seconds. Crew member Don Sewell, another Redlands-based pit man, said, “It’s too much.”
Only an Allison mishap would cost him the race.
Allison knocked down his fourth win of that season.
Waltrip’s familiar green “88” car sped by some 32.9 seconds later. He was nearly out of gas.
“A few years ago,” said Nelson, “I wouldn’t have predicted I’d be where I am today. It’s hard, but I rely on a lot of luck.”
If that doesn’t leave you chuckling, consider that he was worried that a rebuilt transmission on Friday wouldn’t hold in Sunday’s race.
Tim Williamson, the driver who won the Hodgdon 200 just prior to the Winston Western 500, stood alongside Nelson. It was Nelson who said, “I was worried he’d run out of gas.”
Nelson didn’t last long with Waltrip, who left one year later for Junior Johnson’s racing team.
A portion of Nelson’s resume:
Crew chief for Allison, who joined DiGard when Waltrip left.
Turned up as Kyle Petty’s crew chief, 1989.
In 1988, Nelson was a part-timer with ESPN.
A West Coast Stock Car Racing Hall of Famer.
Worked for NASCAR in 1991 as its Winston Cup director. During that time, Nelson was credited with safety innovations – particularly after Earnhardt’s driving death.
Since April 2001, when he took on the safety portion of NASCAR, no life-threatening accidents have taken place at any of its speedways.
One final point: Isn’t it interesting that Nelson’s most prized racers, Allison and Waltrip, were tied for fourth place on NASCAR’s all-time victory list at 84?
All that wrench-turning started as a Redlands Connection.
A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown
It was June 1, 1995. The place was Knoxville, Tenn.
Patrick Johnson, born in Georgia, moved to Redlands, took a football scholarship at the University of Oregon, eventually winding up playing NFL professionally in Baltimore. All evidence pointed to a possible world-class career on that track. There was a moment, though. In college. Here he was in Tennessee. World class speed seemed to be everywhere.
Johnson, an Oregon freshman, was competing against the likes of Ato Boldon, Obadele Thompson, Donovan Powell and Tim Harden, among others. A month earlier, Johnson had beaten Olympic legend Carl Lewis in nearby Des Moines, Iowa.
On hand was the NCAA Division 1 championships, hosted by the University of Tennessee between May 31-June 3.
Patrick Johnson, an electrifying speedster who found his way from world class track into the NFL (photo by ProAthletes Celebrity).
As a world-class speedster, Johnson never hid from the fact that his first interest in athletics was football. I’ll never forget that moment, either.
“All I wanted to do,” Johnson told me during his senior year at Redlands High in 1994, “was play football. That was my goal. Man, I loved track. But football was something different. It was special.”
It was one of a few chats with, perhaps, one of Redlands’ most accomplished athletes.
Here he was, the reigning track & field star at Redlands in 1994 – the eventual state 100- and 200- meter champion. His times were outrageously quick – a 10.43 to win the 1994 State 100 title, while a 10.61 was quick enough to win the Southern Section Division 1 championship.
Don’t forget the 200, where he turned it on three times to win titles, starting in 1993 with a 21.40 to win the Division 1 championship.
One season later, he not only re-captured the Division 1 title in 21.25, but he beat all comers at the State finals in 21.01.
He was no marginal athlete in either sport. Compared to football, where his skills could’ve been used in a variety of positions on the field, Johnson single-mindedly trained for football – even during spring track season.
That’s the groundwork for Johnson’s upcoming track career. Right?
Even the most casual observer might agree that Johnson’s future seemed to be on that oval that usually surrounds any football field.
As a freshman at Oregon, Johnson beat all comers in the Pacific-10 400-meter finals – 45.38 seconds. He made the NCAA Championships in Knoxville, Tenn. that year, unable to qualify in either the 100 or the 200.
His competition was off the charts.
Guys like Bolden, of UCLA, was winning the 200 in 20.24. Johnson’s prelims time was 20.82 – ninth place, one spot out of a place in the finals.
Obadele Thompson once beat Carl Lewis at the Drake Relays, a 100-meter race in which Redlands’ Patrick Johnson finished second (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
At least Johnson made the 100-finals. But his 10.32 clocking was eighth, and last, in a field headed by Kentucky’s Harden (10.05). In that race was the Jamaican, Powell, whose brother, Asafa Powell, once held the world record (9.74) in the 100.
Harden was part of the Olympic silver medal 4 x 100 relay at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Ato Boldon, of UCLA, was a chief rival of Patrick Johnson, the onetime State prep champion from Redlands who took off for the University of Oregon. Boldon celebrated an Olympic medal in this photo at the 2000 Sydney Games (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
Boldon, an eventual four-time Olympic medal winner, had false-started in that 1995 100 semifinals, eliminating him from a possible sprint double – a controversial result, in fact.
Carl Lewis, a 9-time Olympic champion, took on Redlands’ Patrick Johnson at the 1995 Drake Relays (photo by Wikipedia Commons).
A month, or so, before that year’s NCAAs, Johnson prepped at the Drake (Iowa) Relays – on April 29, 1995. It was there that Johnson beat nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis across the line in the 100-meters. Few recall, however, the Lewis’ career was coming to an end. Or that Johnson didn’t even win that race.
Thomson, a sophomore at Texas-El Paso, won in 10.19. Johnson, an Oregon freshman, was next at 10.26. Lewis, the Olympic hero, was third in 10.32.
SPEED KILLS ON A FOOTBALL FIELD
Johnson’s speed was a rampant weapon on any football field.
In football at Redlands, Johnson never seemed to have that huge, stunning, break-out game that observers would recall in years to come. That never kept him from swaying from his dream.
“Ever since I was little,” said Johnson, “I’ve thought about football.”
His Redlands track records will likely stand the test of time – 10.39 in the 100, 20.79 in the 200, 43.79 in the 400 and anchoring a 4 x 400 relay (3:18.79) are numbers that just don’t point a young man away from track & field.
The tipoff should have been easy to spot.
Upon Johnson’s transfer to Redlands as a junior in 1992, he was declared ineligible because he did not have enough units toward graduation. In Terrier coach Jim Walker’s first season, Johnson was a practice squad player from weeks one through 10. Under those conditions, it would have been easy to find something else to do.
“I remember coaching the defensive backs that season,” said onetime Redlands assistant Dick Shelbourne, “the season Pat missed playing in the games because he was ineligible. He only missed two practices the whole season.”
It was a sure sign to Terrier coaches that Johnson was serious about football. When the playoffs rolled around, Walker and Shelbourne worked him into their games against Capistrano Valley and Loyola – in the secondary.
That was Redlands’ introduction to Johnson, who was eligible to run track later that spring. By his senior year, Walker contemplated Johnson at any one of three different offensive positions – receiver, running back or an option quarterback.
Settling on running back, Johnson’s season was uneventful – 583 yards rushing, another 257 receiving, and the Terriers failed to reach the post-season.
His speed on the track lured interested parties because he played football, too. Johnson opted for the University of Oregon, where he played wide receiver.
Years later when Ducks’ football coach Rich Brooks spoke about Johnson, he chuckled when we chatted. “That speed of his,” he said, “could’ve taken him anywhere – football or track.”
Let’s not forget, either, that Oregon is home to Hayward Field, which is the nation’s top site for track & field. It would be impossible not to feel that emotional tug. He seemed offended if anyone suggested track over football.
He’d shake his head. Mind was made up.
FOOTBALL NUMBERS VERSUS TRACK TIMES
At Oregon from 1994-97, Johnson snagged 143 passes mostly from the likes of Ducks’ QBs Tony Graziani and Akili Smith. His final collegiate game, against Air Force in the Las Vegas Bowl, Johnson took advantage of his blazing speed. Catching five passes for 169 yards, he caught two TD passes from Smith for 69 and 78 yards.
On the other hand, he remains on Oregon’s all-time records list – eighth best in the 100 (that 10.26 at The Drake Relays), tied for second best in the 200 (20.39) and sixth best in the 400 (45.38) – with all electrifying marks.
Remember, this is a historic collegiate program. Ranking among the best at that school is overwhelming.
Though uniquely qualified to take on the world’s best sprinters of the day – Lewis, Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene, among others, Johnson’s chosen field was professional football.
The Ravens made him the 42nd selection in the draft, taken in the second round of the 1998 NFL draft.
Johnson, a two-time NCAA All-American in the 100 and 200 in his only full season of collegiate competition, was expected to win the 400 NCAA championship in 1996.
Plus, he was a staunch favorite to make the USA Olympic team that year.
Remember, The Games were scheduled for Atlanta, Ga., Johnson’s home state.
It’s possible Johnson might have over-trained early that season – trying too hard, perhaps. He was, apparently, in no condition to compete at the NCAAs.
Johnson took second in the Pac-10’s 400-meter finals in 1996.
Those calamities added up. Johnson never stepped on Hayward Field’s track again to compete.
This is part of a series of mini-Redlands Connections. This is Part 3 of the series, Quick Visits. Magic Johnson and John Wooden showed up at the University of Redlands as part of a Convocation Series. This piece on Tom Flores was another one. Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, former NBA player John Block, legendary high school coach Willie West showed up. There are others. Cazzie Russell, for instance, came to Redlands with an NCAA Division III basketball team from Savannah, Ga. Russell, out of Michigan, was the NBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1966.
Today’s feature: Tom Flores.
I still remember the day when the onetime Oakland Raiders’ legend showed up at the University of Redlands.
Before Tom Flores’ speaking appearance that day, I’d been given an hour to sit with him in an adjoining room inside the school’s chapel. I grew up in Raider Territory, a town called Hayward, some 20 minutes south of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. It allowed me a little background for this little chat.
“I’ll bet you,” he said, “that you can’t name the original eight AFL teams.”
“You guys started in Minnesota,” I told him.
Tom Flores, standing in front of his team in preparation for a game, led the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders to Super Bowl victories. In between those triumphs, Flores spoke at the University of Redlands (photo by Black & White pride).
Flores, who’d played collegiately at the College of Pacific in Stockton, smiled. I thought I had him.
Name the other ones, he challenged me.
I almost got them all. Buffalo Bills, Boston Patriots, Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Oilers, Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs. Oh, and the New York Jets.
“Not perfect,” he said.
The Kansas City Chiefs were the Dallas Texans. The Jets were originally the New York Titans.
One of Flores’ memories: “I remember we were being paged over the intercom at the airport. They said, ‘Oklahoma Raiders.’
“They didn’t know if we were truck drivers or pro football players.”
The AFL weren’t exactly household names in those early 1960s. It was, he recalled, all-out war between the AFL and NFL.
After several minutes of taking on Flores’ trivia questions, he was introduced to a couple hundred audience members.
“There’s something about those stained-glass windows,” said Flores, noting the inner décor of the University of Redlands’ ancient chapel. “I had a few off-colored stories I was going to share with you, but I don’t think I’d better do that.”
He was part of pro football history. The part of the old American Football League that merged with the National Football League in 1970.
Flores had played QB for the Raiders. He wound up as an assistant coach to the legendary John Madden.
When Madden stepped aside as Raiders’ coach after the 1978 season, Managing General Partner Al Davis tabbed Flores as his head coach. What lied ahead were two Super Bowl championships, one in Oakland, the other in Los Angeles.
Flores’ visit to Redlands came in between those two titles.
“I don’t mingle in any of that,” Flores told me, referring to the conflict his boss, Davis, was having with the NFL and its commissioner, Pete Rozelle. “It’s hard enough to get a team ready to play.
“Teams don’t need all those other distractions.”
He was totally in Davis’ corner.
“I think he’s right. Six years ago, we had one of the best stadiums in football. Now, we’re one of the worst. Everybody has passed us by.”
That 27-10 Super Bowl win in New Orleans over Philadelphia in 1980 had some errant media coverage, he told that Redlands audience.
“We’re publicized as a team that has no discipline,” he said. “When we went to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, they publicized the fact that everyone on the team was out on Bourbon Street every night. Well, that wasn’t true at all.
“Only half the team was out.”
Audience members had questions.
On football’s best player:
“There are several and I should go position by position. But I think Walter Payton is one of the most complete backs in the NFL. He’d sure fit in with the Raiders.”
On the upcoming NFL draft:
“We’re not limited to a position in the draft. But I think we’ll look for an offensive back or receivers. If there’s one out there we like, we’ll take a dominating defensive player.”
